Indianapolis will become a "mock battlefield" for the next three weeks according to local press, as over two thousand marines will stage a huge urban warfare training exercise in and around the city.

About 2,300 Marines from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based at Camp Lejeune, N.C., will conduct urban warfare training from Wednesday through June 19 in and around Indianapolis, reports the Indy Star. ​

The marines have been granted permission by state, federal and local authorities to fire weapons, conduct patrols, run vehicle checkpoints, react to ambushes and employ nonlethal weapons after landing helicopters and deploying throughout various parks, stadiums and fairgrounds. ​

“We don’t want anyone thinking that there’s an invasion happening or that we declared martial law or something like that,” Debbi Fletcher of the Indianapolis/Marion County Emergency Management Agency commented. ​

“Our aim in Indianapolis is to expose our Marines to realistic scenarios and stresses posed by operating in an actual urban community, thereby increasing their proficiency in built-up areas,” Col. Mark J. Desens, commander of the 26th MEU, said in a statement. “While some of the activity will take place around Camp Atterbury, residents in many areas can expect to see helicopters flying overhead, military vehicles on the roads and Marines patrolling on foot,” Desens said. ​

Indianapolis is seemingly welcoming the marines with open arms, in stark contrast to the last story of this nature we reported on in Toledo, Ohio where Mayor Carty Finkbeiner expelled the members of Company A, 1st Battalion, 24th Marines back in February because he did not think it a good idea to have uniformed soldiers drilling in a highly visible area as it may have disrupted and frightened residents.
The Mayor was subsequently castigated by the mainstream media for taking the decision.
In response to the criticism and even small protests in Toledo, Finkbeiner said “Anybody who suggests that this man is in some way, shape, or form not loyal to this country or not loyal to the military of this country, well that person is just a plain baboon who doesn’t know me in any way, shape, or form and what I stand for,”
It is a well documented that the use of military for law enforcement violates the Posse Comitatus Act. The increased spate of urban warfare drills has many fearing that this long standing law is slowly being eroded and everyday Americans becoming acclimatized to the idea of an active military in their towns and cities.
The military has purpose built facilities for training, it is unacceptable and unlawful to have troops training on the streets of towns and cities in America. Nevertheless, the media routinely castigates the idea of preventing it from occurring.
Reporting on this saga, Jim Kouri of NewsWithViews.com interviewed former and current police chiefs who believe the motive for training US troops inside American cities is more sinister:
“The police power has traditionally been reserved for the states. The fact that we’re allowing military troops to train in US cities is a violation of that tradition. We don’t need federal troops to intervene in matters that should be handled by local police officers, state troopers and the National Guard,” one former detective states.
“The increasing use of Urban Warfare Training Exercises, I believe, desensitizes both the public to the deployment of military forces in their own neighborhoods,” warns a police chief, whose mayor endorses the use of military forces within the US.
“It also desensitizes military and police personnel so that they will accept what was once considered unacceptable,” another police chief comments.
We have previously documented the coordinated program of urban warfare drilling in America and how such activity has increased in tandem with an growing effort to erode the ancient law of Posse Comitatus.In 911: The Road to Tyranny Alex Jones presents footage of troops training to put Americans into Concentration Camps. This footage includes interrogations and a retired Marine admitting that in 1988 he was kicking down doors in Norfolk, Virginia. The Marines would be ordered to the local Police station where they would don Police uniforms. They would then go to the local gun shop or dealers home and "Take Them Down."
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</td> </tr> </tbody></table> In Alex Jones’ feature Police State 2000he covers Operation Urban Warrior where actors posed as American citizens who were Unconstitutionally seized from their homes by the military and police. These Americans: were rounded up and confined behind barbed-wire.
The actors were told to demand to be let free and state that they had rights. They were also told to demand food and water. The troops in turn were taught to ignore them and to order them to behave in an orderly fashion. "Civil disobedience will not be tolerated" was one of the many disturbing statements heard to emanate from the military’s loud speakers.
Over the years there have been countless drills of this nature. The media simply reports them as training for dealing with foreign enemies, yet the volunteers and the participants are always told differently.
Here’s a report on another urban warfare drill entitled "The Millennium Challenge 2002". This drill was conducted secretly across 26 States in 2002.
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</td> </tr> </tbody></table> In 2005 details of just one of many Military operations on American soil was exposed in the run up to Bush’s second coronation. A secret counterterrorism program code-named Power Geyser. A small group of super-secret commandos were hidden among 13000 police and troops and "stood ready with state-of-the-art weaponry to swing into action.".
There have been literally thousands of these kind of operations in the planning and going on for years now. Many designed to use the military on the streets of American cities in direct violation of Posse Comitatus. The Pentagon has a full Command in operation working on these activities, the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC).

I have mixed emotions over this training, I really do. I can see the benefits rather easily, given that many potential overseas enemies are well westernized, and their cities are similar to ours in construction and to an extent in layouts. At least two of the city states ex-conus that I have visited carry out this type of exercise regularly to good benefit of their armed forces. The other side of the coin is the obvious disruption to the daily lives of folks here that are not used to seeing the military on the streets. (Even if they can tell by looking any difference between military and para military cops and miscellaneous security forces.) And, of course, the potential for generation of conspiracy ideas, true or not, about how we are going to be rounded up and sent to camps similar in function to Treblinka. Yepper, seeing that sort of training could easily acclimate the citizenry, to become used to seeing wolves among the sheep, and become unwary. That's the hard part, that business of conditioning.

Only part that concerns me is the part where actors playing digruntled citizens realistically begging for food, water and complaining about their lack of constitutional rights and
troops are TRAINED TO IGNORE AND"HANDLE" these complaints.

Iranians or Iraqis are not going to bitch about losing their constitiutonal rights....Only americans would do that.

I agree that this is a good thing and a bad thing. I worry about people getting used to seeing military vehicles and checkpoints across our cities. However I can def. see the plus side with having to control your own emotions while dealing with high stress situations. I am not so worried about Jarheads helping with the take over the US. Its more of the Army that I worry about, my reasoning is that Devil Dogs are possibly THE most patriotic and USA loving group of people I have ever met. Sorry if this offends, and is too broad for some, however its what I believe.

An American in Canada....This will be fun
Why Call it Tourist Season when we can't hunt them?
I love this bar, It's my kind of place...

I agree that this is a good thing and a bad thing. I worry about people getting used to seeing military vehicles and checkpoints across our cities. However I can def. see the plus side with having to control your own emotions while dealing with high stress situations. I am not so worried about Jarheads helping with the take over the US. Its more of the Army that I worry about, my reasoning is that Devil Dogs are possibly THE most patriotic and USA loving group of people I have ever met. Sorry if this offends, and is too broad for some, however its what I believe.

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Jarheads are mostly good people and understand that the Constitution is what truly defines America. I could not imagine turning my rifle on Americans defending their Constitutional rights while I served. I'd be killing family and friends at that rate.

If guns kill people, then pencils misspell words, cars make people drive drunk, and spoons made Rosie O' Donnell fat!

It seems that everyone is forgeting about the one part of our military that "Posse Comitatus" does not apply to legally. That is our state National Guard forces. Rember Kent State!

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That is true for the National Guard but not for active duty forces!

There conditioning you to believe that it's an accepted practice and legal, but it's not and frankly it's illegal under "Posse Comitatus". I was in the Army and they have full fledged training "cities" to train for this stuff. It's called MOUNT training. They don't need to do this in our cities, it's just to desensitize both the troops and us to their presence to bring a "Normalcy" to it. This is really training for the coming marshal law. Just look at the economy and gas prices. What is going to happen when normal citizens "loose it" when they can't afford to go to work anymore because of soaring gas prices or can't afford food because food prices have gone through the roof due to the cost of transportation. Their will be rioting in the streets.

Instead of training the masses for its Normalcy, maybe instead it is a muscle flex for the state governors and mayors. Telling them that this will be a sight in the near future if you don't control your people/crime rate/whatever. That makes a bit more sense to me.

An American in Canada....This will be fun
Why Call it Tourist Season when we can't hunt them?
I love this bar, It's my kind of place...

I have to agree with thepatriot1976 on this, these Marines can train in Muscatatuck Urban Training Center that is south of Indy. Something is not right with this.

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Thank you routeclearence I was 11 bravo infantry and I'm only 31 so you know it wasn't that long ago when I was a soldier and I've been to MOUNT training facilities before in the mid 90's. Trust me we have "entire" cities with companies of soldiers that play the opfor or opposing force while you train for urban combat! They don't need to train in American cities!

Please trust me on this I've gone through U.S. Army MOUNT training more than once and I'm sure there are some other soldiers here that have as well! We have one right here in Oklahoma city that used to be a neighborhood (I believe it was called Glendale or Glenpool I know it started with Glen) that was in direct flight path of Tinker A.F. base and the Air force bought the entire neighborhood about 30 years ago and made it air force property most of the homes and public school still intact. We used to play many war games in there. Nothing like walking into a school gym and having an opfor open up on you with an m-60 from a machine gun nest in a corner of the gym and setting of your miles equipment. Sit down and wait for the range officer to come reset your box after the battle is over! Although some of us learned to cheat and make our own keys out of expended blank cartridges to turn our box off and it's always fun to silent snipe somebody by blowing in to your weapon adapter when you see an enemy. All you grunts know what I'm talking about Hooah! So believe me you of us who have been out for a while I am telling you the truth. We don't need to go to Indianapolis to train for urban combat okay!